Review of ‘Farcical’ Retail Laws a Matter of Urgency - Annah Stretton

Fashion retailer Annah Stretton is outraged that once again Easter has passed with no change to the outdated laws that force the closure of most retail businesses.

“The amendments to the Shop Trading Act make public holiday trading absolutely farcical with anomalies abound,” she says. “Shops in Tairua can open on Anzac morning as long as Anzac Day falls on a Monday or Friday, Picton can stay open if a cruise ship is in port; some shops in Thames can open on Easter Sunday as long as Easter falls in March, garden centres can open Easter Sunday but are fined for opening GoodFriday,” she says. “These exemptions and amendments make the act a travesty of government regulation.”

The law today protects workers with a penal rate for statutory days of time and a half and an alternate holiday – an equivalent pay rate of two and a half times what they would normally earn. “But then the law takes the ability of many workers to earn that rate off them, by not allowing them to work unless they are in an essential service,” says Stretton. “Workers should have the choice – in my opinion many will choose to earn the extra money.”

The internet didn’t even exist in 1989, when most of the regulations surrounding retail trading hours were removed, so e-commerce sites don’t have to ever shut their virtual cash registers. “How ridiculous is it that you can place an order online for groceries from your local supermarket and have staff pack and deliver it, but the same shop can’t sell you the same products through the checkout on certain days?” says Stretton.

“It is a matter of urgency that we review our archaic retail laws and bring them into the new century, drafting new ones that are more pro-choice for both workers and shoppers,” she says. “The profits garden centres receive more than cover the $1000 fine they pay to trade on that day - proof that there is demand from customers for stores to be open. If customers want to shop, and workers want to work – why is the government stopping them?”
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